A step toward effective climate strategy

As weather-related disasters ramp up around the state and the country, the most noticeable increase in public participation in these climate-related discussions is a demand for more government funding for repairs and adaptation, and yet pretty much zero discussion about decreasing the rate of climate warming. This is both unsurprising and a cause for deep concern.

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As humans, we have evolved to handle immediate life-threatening crises, and we do that very well. Our longer-term emergency responses are not so well developed though we are capable of understanding that to tackle a planet-sized problem, we need very big strategies. We need to participate in discussions about wide-ranging policy capable of influencing our greenhouse gas related habits as a species. One such policy is carbon pricing.

On Friday, April 4, Blue Hill voters will have an opportunity to vote on whether we, as a community, would like to encourage our members of Congress to enact a federal system of carbon pricing that would disincentivize the burning of fossil fuels, stimulate a shift to renewables, and pay dividends regularly and equally to all legal U.S. residents. The “cashback carbon-pricing” policy, also known as a carbon fee and dividend, has been endorsed by over 3,300 economists as an effective market-based tool to address fossil fuel overuse.